ABILENE - The Falcons of Texas-Permian Basin fly into Moody Coliseum Tuesday for a 7 p.m. battle against Abilene Christian's women's basketball team. ACU won the first six game in this series, which dates back to 2004-05, but have lost the last two by scores of 105-91 and 77-67.
The Falcons beat the Wildats early in the 2011-12 season en route to a 19-8 overall record, and they're expected to contend once again for the Heartland Conference title led by last year's leading scorers Taniqua Ards (11.3 ppg) and Teisha King (11.2). UT-PB received two first-place votes to rank third in the league's preseason poll with 70 points. The remaining first-place votes were split between Arkansas-Ft. Smith, St. Mary's and Newman.
Tuesday's game is Permian Basin's first of the season, but the second for ACU, which crushed Texas A&M-International, 94-66, Saturday night led by sophomore
Sadie Dickinson's double-double of 16 points and 12 rebounds. In making her first career start, Dickinson established a new personal best in rebounds and matched her career high in points. She also was one of four Wildcats to score in double figures along with
Renata Marquez (18),
Kelsey Smith (13) and
Emily Miller, who poured in 10 points in eight minutes off the bench.
Lone Star Conference Preseason Player of the Year
Mackenzie Lankford was not expected to play vs. the Dust Devils due to injury, but managed to contribute five points and two rebounds in 14 minutes. The junior from Weatherford, Texas, has scored 1,371 career points and needs 425 more to crack ACU's top-15 and tie Pat Bidwell. Lankford is on pace to finish with 1,882 points.
Tuesday's game will be broadcast live locally by
Grant Boone on 1280-AM KSLI and online via the ACU Sports page at
SkyBoxLive.com.
